Chess Knights: Viking Lands

Viking Lands is an amazing game. The stunning 3d visuals, precise movements, and exciting puzzles are simply delightful. Each piece is designed with care. The gameplay is smooth and intuitive, and though you must know how chess pieces move to play this game, it is easy to learn even just playing this game. Overall very impressive and fun to play.

the game didn't last too long, and some of the puzzles were annoying. but the game's not expensive and quite entertaining. you only control knights, but only a single knight has to survive at any time.

I'ts ok. You're given a number of knights(depends on the level) to navigate the squares. You have to also avoid bishops, rooks and queens. Or sacrifice a knight to watch them both perish, opening a way for your remaining knights. You start on home squares, and your goal is to go to your captured allies. This is done by landing on them and letting them ride you. Then you have to take them back to a home square. The maps have different layouts, and the enemy pieces often move every turn. This game isn't that hard. The puzzles are short but many, meaning if you fail you can restart it quickly. There's also a take back move feature, which could make it easy if you used it(my pride wouldn't let me). The game should last around 1.5 hours(for the really smart) to 3 hours(for the.... less than smart). I think the average player would finish it in 2-2.25 hours. 2-3 dollars seems fair for the length of game.

主线通了，挑战关卡通了第一个地图。感觉没日本忍者那个好玩，但也还不错，胜在代入感强，通关之后会出现极光，文字还都是北欧那种划直线的文字（因为他们的文字是雕刻在石头这种硬物上，所以划直线更方便，不好曲里拐弯）。 一开始我还以为要扮演的是维京人，以为这次终于可以吃子了，结果……扮演的是被维京人绑架的人的老乡，目标是救人，所以还是得像忍者一样悄悄潜入，打枪的不要。最有代入感的是最后冰岛（《尤弥尔的冰川》）那个地图，一开始地图只有一两个人巡逻，一背起老乡就会瞬间冒出一堆维京人。 维京人不信基督教，按说不会有主教这种棋子，但设计一点都不违和，有三种维京人：胖子，瘦子，女王。胖子走法和城堡一样，瘦子走法和主教一样。 这一作没有收集要素是一大遗憾，按说北欧神话里的神器也不少，什么剑，什么项链之类的。

I wonder why Minimol Games don't find themselves a more apt name, like Maniacs of Chess :) They keep on releasing chess-inspired, but not-quite chess games - and even more interestingly, although some of these games look super weird from a chess player's perspective, they actually feature perfectly valid puzzle mechanics. In Chess Knights: Viking Lands, the valiant Knights need to rescue their brethren from the mighty Norsemen (or Norsepieces?), moving strictly in L-shaped jumps. Upon this mechanic the game builds about 60 puzzles, some of them very simple, and a few are satisfyingly tough... or they would be, weren't for some of the usual shortcomings of the developer's games. One is that Minimol repeatedly uses 3D-navigable boards as an excuse to not set up a proper camera angle for the levels. As usual, their pieces are difficult to tell apart from some angles, so sometimes it's quite annoying to find the right view to contemplate the task at hand. The other is the undo. CK:VL uses a one-step undo feature, something I find rather pointless (the one-step part) but acceptable, as even one step solves 80% of the issues caused by a total lack of undo. Problem is, if you die with your last knight (often towards the end of a long level), the undo doesn't work. And finally, the number of knights per level. Sometimes you need to sacrifice some of your knights to be able to pass the level. Now, if you always sacrifice all but one knights, then 80% of the levels can be completed on autopilot. In several levels, you can keep all your knights, if you're savvy - but there are levels where you must sacrifice at least one, or even more. Then, most levels can be completed with 1 knight sacrificed. So, is this some kind of DIY difficulty setting? If it is, then please at least provide a PAR number for each level... I generally enjoyed the game, but the mentioned issues (especially the last one) made the experience more than a bit confusing, and sometimes annoying. The 4.8 hours of playtime included a full lunch when I left the game running (cca. 40 mins), and a properly working undo would have shaved off another hour or so, while making the overall experience much sweeter. At around 2 EUR, these games are absolutely worth their price - however I still wish they had a bit more polish.

Chess Knights: Viking Lands is a turn-based puzzle game based on chess movement. You must use your knights to navigate through the puzzle field, avoiding enemy bishops, rooks, and queens (if possible), rescue the captured pieces, and bring them back to your starting area. If you like puzzles where you need to find the path to the destination and avoid traps, then you'll probably like this game. I estimate the average person will take 1.5 to 2.5 hours to finish this game. Unfortunately, there is no tutorial explaining how the pieces move (it is assumed that you know the basic chess piece images and movements), so I will explain it here. The blue pieces with pointy tops are enemy bishops; they can move diagonally only. The blue pieces with flat tops and horns on the sides are enemy rooks; they can move orthogonally only (up, down, left, and right). The blue pieces with wings on the sides are enemy queens; they can move in any direction. Each of the enemy pieces can move any number of spaces in their allowed directions. However, they cannot cross gaps or barriers and they cannot move over (or land on) a "safe" tile. "Safe" tiles are tiles on which the enemy cannot capture you. I noticed two types of "safe" tiles. The first type is the type on which you start and the captured pieces reside. The second type looks like a wooden tile with a design on it; you'll be able to distinguish these because they look distinctly different from the other tiles. Your pieces are red knights. A knight's movement is L-shaped, in which you move two spaces in one direction and then one space in a perpendicular direction. The full list of potential movements for a knight is: 1) up two left one, 2) up two right one, 3) right two up one, 4) right two down one, 5) down two right one, 6) down two left one, 7) left two down one, and 8) left two up one. A knight can cross a gap or barrier as long as the tile on which it lands is not a gap or barrier. Unlike chess, you cannot capture enemy pieces. If an enemy is sitting on a tile, you cannot move there. One last thing to note is that you cannot skip your turn; you must move one of your knights when it is your turn. If you do not plan things properly, this can result in you being forced into a position in which you will be captured and will need to restart the puzzle (the puzzles are not long, so this really isn't a big deal). Overall, I found this to be a very enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.